Editing Hernando de Soto (section)

=== 1541: Westward ===
[[File:Discovery of the Mississippi.jpg|thumb|''Discovery of the Mississippi'' by [[William H. Powell]] (1823–1879) is a [[Romanticism|Romantic]] depiction of de Soto seeing the Mississippi River for the first time. It hangs in the [[United States Capitol rotunda]].]]
{{main||Casqui|Pacaha|Tunica people}}
In the spring of 1541, de Soto demanded 200 men as porters from the [[Chickasaw]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Quackenbos|first=George Payn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aLVFAAAAIAAJ&q=spring+of+1541%2C+de+Soto+demanded+200+men&pg=PA57|title=Illustrated School History of the United States and the Adjacent Parts of America: From the Earliest Discoveries to the Present Time ...|date=1864|publisher=D. Appleton & Company|language=en}}</ref> They refused his demand and attacked the Spanish camp during the night.

On 8 May 1541, de Soto's troops reached the [[Mississippi River]].<ref name=Morison1974>{{cite book| last = Morison| first = Samuel| title = The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, 1492–1616| url = https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00mori_2| url-access = registration| publisher = Oxford University Press| year = 1974| location = New York }}</ref>

De Soto had little interest in the river, which in his view was an obstacle to his mission. There has been considerable research into the exact location where de Soto crossed the Mississippi River. A commission appointed by [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1935 determined that [[Sunflower Landing, Mississippi]], was the "most likely" crossing place. De Soto possibly traveled down [[Charley's Trace]], which had been used as a trail through the swamps of the [[Mississippi Delta]], to reach the Mississippi River.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Ian W. |editor1-last=Rafferty |editor1-first=Janet |editor2-last=Peacock |editor2-first=Evan |title=Time's River: Archaeological Syntheses from the Lower Mississippi Valley |date=2008 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=978-0-8173-8112-7 |page=378 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dgdMCbaAQAC |chapter=Chapter 16. Culture Contact Along the I-69 Corridor: Protohistoric and Historic Use of the Northern Yazoo Basin, Mississippi}}</ref> De Soto and his men spent a month building flatboats, and crossed the river at night to avoid the Native Americans who were patrolling the river. De Soto had hostile relations with the native people in this area.<ref>{{cite book | last = Flowers | first = Judith Coleman | title = Clarksdale and Coahoma County | publisher = Arcadia | year = 2016 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BYD8CwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 | isbn = 978-1439655030 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Marley | first = David | title = Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the New World, 1492 to the Present | publisher = ABC-CLIO | year = 1998 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rdvp3cGJUZoC&pg=PP1 | page = 45| isbn = 978-0874368376 }}</ref>
[[File:Historia de Puerto Rico (IA historiadepuerto00mill) (page 131 crop b).jpg|thumb|left|Illustration of an indigenous man at the banks of the river with de Soto and others]]
In the late 20th century, research suggests other locations may have been the site of de Soto's crossing, including three locations in Mississippi: [[Commerce, Mississippi|Commerce]], [[Friars Point, Mississippi|Friars Point]], and [[Walls, Mississippi|Walls]], as well as [[Memphis, Tennessee]].<ref>{{cite book | last1 = McNutt | first1 = Charles H. | year = 1996 | editor1-last = McNutt | editor1-first = Charles H. | title = The Central Mississippi Valley: A Summary | work = Prehistory of the Central Mississippi Valley | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CIJoOR6ndgMC&pg=PP1 | publisher = University of Alabama Press | page = 251| isbn = 978-0817308070 }}</ref> Once across the river, the expedition continued traveling westward through modern-day Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. They wintered in ''Autiamique'', on the [[Arkansas River]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foti |first=Tom |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED134441.pdf |title=Arkansas: Its Land and People |publisher=Environmental Education Office, Arkansas State Dept. of Education |year=1975 |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=21–22 |language=English}}</ref>

After a harsh winter, the Spanish expedition decamped and moved on more erratically. Their interpreter Juan Ortiz had died, making it more difficult for them to get directions and food sources, and generally to communicate with the Natives. The expedition went as far inland as the [[Caddo River]], where they clashed with a Native American tribe called the [[Tula people|Tula]] in October 1541.<ref>Charles Hudson (1997). pp. 320–325.</ref> The Spaniards characterized them as the most skilled and dangerous warriors they had encountered.<ref name=c21>Carter, Cecile Elkins. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eYtJfJ9yDEQC&q=Spiro&pg=PA17 ''Caddo Indians: Where We Come From''.] Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001: 21. {{ISBN|0-8061-3318-X}}</ref> This may have happened in the area of present-day [[Caddo Gap, Arkansas]] (a monument to the de Soto expedition was erected in that community). Eventually, the Spaniards returned to the Mississippi River.